EAA Chapter 866 Smilin Jack Newsletter Nov2011

Ray Thomas w/ Young Eagle candidate - Young Eagle Rally Oct. 15, 2011

President’s Notes

I had the opportunity to take my 77 year old mother on a cross-country in the Pietenpol on October 14. My uncle lives over in Lake Wales, and that’s where my mom grew up. The day turned out to be perfect for open cockpit flying, with nice temps and clear skies. Mom complains every time she has to climb into the front seat, but so does everyone. She actually gets in about as well as anybody. The winds aloft must have been blowing stronger than those on the ground, because we hit 90 mph over the ground a few times. Since I only cruise at 70 mph I was a little worried about winds on landing, but when the time came the wind sock at Lake Wales was hanging pretty limp. We had a nice visit with my aunt and uncle and headed home. The visibility was even better on the way back, and I spotted the VAB from 50 miles out. Mom and I had a great time, and she says she is ready to do it again. All-in-all, a great day. Our Young Eagles day was the next day, and I was able to take up 6 flights. Flying these kids over the shuttle runway was a big thrill for them. It was a little cool that morning, and I flew one young girl wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. I kept asking if she was cold, but she never complained. My last passenger was one of the CAP cadets, and he was a real natural stick and rudder guy. He ended up flying the airplane half of the flight, and considering all he had was a compass and turn ball, he did amazingly well. I didn’t think it was possible to be tired of flying, but after climbing in and out of the Pietenpol 8 or 9 times that day I spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch! Our next meeting is Nov 2, and it is time for elections. We don’t have any presentations scheduled, so if anyone wants to make a detailed project report, feel free to contact me, or Larry if you will need a projector. We are getting ready to nail down the location of our annual dinner/party and will be discussing that also BenBenBen

October Breakfast

Our monthly breakfast, held on Oct 1st was another resounding success! A lot of the regular workers were unable to attend and that slack had to be taken up by people doing jobs that were new to them. It worked out great! Becky Naggle stepped up to the messy job of cooking the bacon and Kimberly Brennan stepped up to hot grill to cook eggs for our eaters. To really appreciate what goes on over at the bacon and egg grill you have to work next to those people either mixing the special secret formula for the pancakes or over on the other side flippen them pancakes. The hot bacon fat is splattering everywhere, the smoke burns your eyes, and the egg shells are flying around like shrapnel! War zone!! Inside bldg. 10 and behind the food service table Loretta and new face Jan are keeping the rest of the operation going by keeping the gravy, biscuits, and grits coffee and all of that other great breakfast stuff going. The set up crew usually led by Stu Sammis get the table and chairs out there for our eaters. All hard work and we man and woman up and git er done every time! Herman said we had 150 or so donate the $5.00 for this marvelous meal. A good time was had by most.

October Meeting

The October meeting held on the 5th day was called to order with the Pledge of allegiance to our flag at 7:00 pm. 21 people were in attendance. EAA chapter 724 president Don White was in attendance as a guest.

Progress reports: Deborah could hardly contain herself because she is so excited about her acquisition of an experimental airplane kit called Twister, a hot looking single place carbon fiber plane with folding wings and included in the deal a trailer. No hangar needed! The airplane will be powered by the new UL 260I engine. Kip Anderson had his instrument panel a MGL glass unit which he lit up to show us. Connected to this were two electronic gyros that he demonstrated by moving them around simulating flight so that attitude was shown on the screen. The display includes engine instruments, moving map, aurel notices, in house movies and stock reports. Pretty fancy thing mfg. in S Africa. Bob Rychel who is building a Zenith 650XL has the wings on it, the ailerons and flaps are done. Control console is in and he is starting on the instrument panel. His 2200 Jabiru engine is sitting on the work bench ready to mount on the completed firewall. He has the roll bar installed and it’s ready for the canopy. Eddie Brennan has built a rotisserie for his Kitfox 7 fuselage and says he can rotate the thing with one finger. He’s now working on the inst. Panel and is making a place to mount his ipad and a Skyview panel in it. He is using the Viking engine in this plane. This engine is the Honda FIT conversion offered by a company in Edgewater, Fl. Les is getting ready to wire his RV4 and has purchased a book called Aero Connections for wiring airplanes and he passed this around for members to peruse. Jeff Wilde has his RV12 just about done and the wings ae on he has run it up and is ready to taxi test. He says he’s about one month to test flight. Bill Bilsky has put 3hrs on his home built helicopter simulator and is working on the hovering aspect of helicopter flight. He said that it works very well. Harry Teal was about to depart Deland for Pittsburgh in his C120. He is taking it up there for his son to use.

The program was done by Ben Charvet. This was a slide show about safety and LSA planes. One slide depicted that it was easier to transition up to heavy aircraft than it is to transition down to LSA from heavy planes. One airport reported that the accident rate for transitioning down from heavy to LSA was 100%! Ain’t that sumpthin!

Young Eagle Rally

The pilots have it made! All they (we ) have to do is take a kid who is excited and happy about going for a first airplane ride is to strap him/her into the passenger seat, put a head set on them and take them flying. The pilot gets the enjoyment of being with an enthused passenger flying out over KSC and the SLF. Oh yeah, for those who read this newsletter and don’t live near KSC, those are acronyms for Kennedy Space Center and Shuttle Landing Facility. What a privilege it is to be able to do that!

The hard part of a Y-E rally is doing the registration and the ground school and keeping everything orderly with the kids while they wait for the ride. So many EAA C866 members turned out to help I can’t even name them all. There were cookies, coffee and donuts for refreshments. The CAP cadets were there with Ed Allen and another officer and they were a great help and they are super young men and young women. There is preliminary work that is done to put this all together and this year through our chapter VP who is involved with NASA as an engineer, arrangements were made with Cape Control to do the SLF pass of which there were at least 35. We flew around 40 kids with 5 - 2 place airplanes and one four place. A very satisfying endeavor this is!

LarryLarryLarry

Below is some of the communication between our VP, Les and the cape control folks.

(e-mails between Les and Cape Control folks after the event) Cc: Walker, Robert H. (KSC-GPO30) Subject: Young Eagles Rally - THANKS!!

Tom, Thanks again for your support in helping to make our EAA Young Eagles event such a success. Please feel free to pass along these photos to the CAPE CONTOLLER who was on duty last Sat. He was terrific!

Les Boatright NE-M3 NASA Mechanical Engineering (also EAA 866 Vice President)

Les - - thanks for the feedback and thanks for doing what you and the other members of EAA are doing. I am certain that at least one of the young “Eagles” will have been bitten by the flying bug. That is how it happened with me. Glad we could be part of it and look forward to working with you in the future.

Regards,

Tom

Tom Friers KSC-Chief of Flight Operations Mail Code: TA-A5

Below is an article Les submitted to EAA natl. for possible mention in Sport Aviation) Attention EAA Editorial Staff:

The following is submitted for your consideration for "Members Central", What our Chapters are doing . . . Please find a few photos attached as well.

EAA Chapter 866 hosted a Young Eagles Rally at the Arthur Dunn airpark in Titusville, Florida on Saturday morning October 15th, 2011. Six different member pilots volunteered their time and airplanes to provide free airplane rides to 35 boys and girls ranging in age from 8 to 17. For many of the kids, it was their first time ever flying in an airplane of any kind, much less a small general aviation aircraft. Several other members of EAA Ch. 866 volunteered their time conducting ground school orientation sessions using a Cessna 152, taking photos, registering the kids and printing their certificates, helping to safely coordinate ground movements, as well as providing plenty of coffee and light snacks for everyone. This year’s event was all the more special in that the pilots were permitted to fly a low approach fly-by of NASA’s nearby Space Shuttle Landing Facility. This gave the Young Eagles the very rare opportunity to get an up-close aerial view of the space center as well as the surrounding wildlife refuge. EAA 866 would like to express our most sincere thanks to the Kennedy Space Center, the NASA Chief of Flight Operations, and the Cape Controller who all supported this effort and helped to make the Young Eagle Rally a great success!! It’s safe to say that these young people, and their parents, had a most memorable experience and came away with a very positive impression of general aviation. There were plenty of smiles all around from both the Young Eagles and the pilots.

Best Regards, Les Boatright EAA 866 Vice-President

Too Busy Building…Go Fly!

Seems that building an experimental aircraft really cuts into the time you actually fly. Yes, you are learning all about aircraft systems and construction, but not operating one as much as you would like. The solution…Go Fly! One option is Jack Brown’s seaplane base In Winter Haven, Where you can get your seaplane rating in a couple of days. Yep, it includes your check ride which also counts as a biennial. Be ready for some intensive but fun flying. The J3 Cub has no electric and the pilot sits in the back. Not to worry, the instructor will prop the engine for you… so will the FAA check ride guy. You have to make sure to pump out the floats out before departure. There are 14 different compartments and you have to use a handheld pump. They leak a little bit, just like a well used Jon boat. Pattern altitude is usually 500 feet and then get ready to splash down in at least 10 different lakes. Count on 50 take offs and landings which will result in a good work out for your right arm, (the instructors don’t bother with the elevator trim). Woo Hoo! What fun… rough water, glassy water, cross wind, plow turns, sailing, and of course getting back to the dock. You will find that there is a lot to learn operating an airplane on the water, it doesn’t come real natural, but is great fun and easy to learn. The personnel and equipment at Brown’s is top notch and you will immediately feel at home around the base. So….get out of the shop and go fly…Of course it is nice to have friends with a Citabria and who knows, maybe a glider next?

Mitch Matheny EAA 800210

Winter Party Some time in mid January It’s close to that time again and this year we are looking into some more interesting venues for the party. Please check these out with the information you get from this newsletter and give your input at the meeting about the choices we’ll have.

#1 Royal Oak Country Club, this is the place where we’ve had our last 3 parties. For most of us this place is easy to get to. It’s a nice place and the food is good. Last year we had dinner, did the chapter awards, and drew door prizes then we went home. The total cost to the chapter was around 1,500 dollars.

Below are two more possibilities that we’ve checked into.

#2 Rivership Romance, located in Sanford is a cruise on the St Johns River departing across lake Monroe and down river for quite a ways. They serve excellent food and offer Entries of beef, chicken, pork, and fish. It is a sit down dinner served by the wait staff of the ship. There is a bar, and live entertainment is available for dancing for an additional fee. The cruise is 3 hrs. We can do the award thing and door prizes here too. Please check this out at rivershipromance.com. Transportation for this will have to be worked out possibly by doing some car pooling. Cost would be around 2,800 dollars.

#3 Danville BNB is a Disney style downtown venue built into a hangar on an airstrip in Geneva. It is a gorgeous place! Our meal would be catered and buffet style. The place is equipped with a big screen for our use. There is a professional stage and lighting, and sound system if we elect to do live entertainment. Again, transportation will have to be worked out. This is around 20 miles from Titusville near rt 46. Cost would be around 1,600 dollars. Check this one out at www.danvillebnb.com/danville-downtown-872 Ticket price will be $25.00 and this will include your annual membership dues which are normally $24.00. With ticket revenues taken into account the hit on the treasury for our party at any of these venues is small.

We will have more information for you to look at about these venues at the monthly meeting.

The SLF Pass.

You know how it goes, call NASA tower on 128.55 and tell them you’d like to make a pass over the Shuttle Landing Facility, they tell you to report base for which ever runway you want to approach and they clear you down to an altitude and you make the pass. It’s fun! OK, the tower is closed on weekends, now what? You can just go ahead and make the pass without talking to anyone! A close study of that airspace out over Cape Canaveral reveals some facts that may be surprising.

The SLF is in class D airspace. How do we handle class D when the tower is closed? Answer: When the tower is closed class D is not in effect so, we monitor the freq and make announcements as you would at a non controlled airport. (CATF) 128.55

OK so the airspace changes to what class when the tower is closed? Answer: If you’re 700’+ then it’s class E. If you’re below 700’ it’s class G.

The SLF is in restricted area R2934. Yep, it’s restricted (unlimited) that means from the ground up but, it is activated by NOTAM 24 hrs in advance. This means that unless the NOTAM is in effect than R2934 is class E in some areas and class G in others.

Be careful because the Eastern part of the Space center is in R2932. This one is continuously active. It only goes up to 4,999’ though so, 5,000’ and above you’re not in R2932. That means we can fly over the whole thing if we’re 5,000 or above.

Beware of R2933 though. This is just off of the beach and starts at 5,000’ and is activated by NOTAM 24 hrs in advance.

There is always someone in the tower watching the radar and when the tower is closed, and if you want to make the pass it is a good idea to call Cape Control on 133.8 and explain what you’re doing out there because you’re real close to R2932 and you’d better not amble into that area when you’re below 5,000’. You’ll probably be busted and maybe even worse! Want to make sure you don’t bust that airspace, Just make sure you don’t go East of the SLF.

Here is one more thing. The class D ceiling is 1,900’. If you want to cross that space and you’re higher than 1,900 you don’t even have to talk the tower. (still a good idea though, I think) (make sure you don’t slide into R2932 though)

If there is time we’ll discuss this at Nov. meeting. Larry

See illustration below

Chapter officers 3825 Cottonwood Drive Titusville 32780 321-961- Pres. Charvet, Ben 5117 [email protected] 3640 Fraizer Ct. VP Boatright, Les Titusville, Fl 32780 269-1723 [email protected] 321-427- Secy McCoy, Gene 523 Bahama Dr. 4882 [email protected] Indian Harbour Beach 773-1554 Emergency chapter secretary FL 32937 21425 Hobby Horse Treas. Nagel, Herman Lane 407-568-8980 [email protected] Christmas, FL 32709

Nws 2002 Malinda Lane Titusville 32796 Lttr Gilbert, Larry 591-8783 [email protected] 321-385-1908

Chapter Meeting Weds. Nov 2, 2011 7 PM Bldg. 10 Dunn Airpark Titusville, Fl

Chapter Breakfast Sat. Nov. 5, 2011 8:00am – 10:30 Dunn Airpark Bldg. 10 Titusville, Fl